LECTURE: Tea’s Flavors: A Celebration of Humans Working with Nature

How can you judge a good Assam from a bad? A properly brewed Sencha from a weak one? A spring Darjeeling from one harvested in the fall? Drawing on his singular experience, Michael Harney masterfully explores the vast range of teas to describe how people and tea plants have combined to create some of the world’s best beverages. Their “dance,” evolving over the centuries, has resulted in hundreds of distinct varietals, each with a taste that derives from a precise combination of cultivation and production techniques, influenced by geography as well as history. With an emphasis on the plant-human connection, Mr. Harney will help you navigate the increasingly complex world of tea, transforming you from a tea drinker to a tea connoisseur.

Michael Harney is the tea taster of Harney & Sons Tea. He graduated from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration in 1977 and joined his father at Harney & Sons Teas in 1988. He is author of Harney & Sons Guide to Tea and travels the world looking for wonderful tasting teas. Learn more at www.harney.com.